From the explosion of pink and red balloons to the cupcake station and overflowing jars of marshmallow and jelly beans, Swarovski's spring-summer collection launch resembled more of a tween princess-themed birthday party than a fashion accessories runway show.

Today is Mother's Day, the 'greeting card holiday' for which we are pressured to show our appreciation to the woman who raised us. It's better, of course, to show your appreciation year-round, but if you don't, at least take her out for a pleasant meal today, then bring her home and serve her a home-made dessert that you've put a bit of effort into.

From the novelty PR file: the Mandarin Oriental decided to help one of its prime retail tenants celebrate a landmark birthday with a most unusual cake. This year marks Italian brand Salvatore Ferragamo's 80th anniversary, so the hotel's pastry kitchen took one of the label's most popular mules and turned it into an edible item.

Phoebe's Designer Bakery, the first bakery in Hong Kong to specialise in wedding cakes, opened last month at 25 Aberdeen Street, Central. The cakes are designed by Cheekay Chow (below) - who named the shop after her dog - and baked by pastry chef Tsui Ming-sai, who worked for 18 years at The Peninsula hotel.

Although the recipe for French macarons looks easy, they are one of the most difficult pastries to master. Made with beaten egg whites, ground almonds and icing sugar, the mixture is piped out, baked and then sandwiched together in pairs.

Hung Wins comes from a family of pastry chefs. His father, three uncles, brother and cousin are all in the business. Hung, who has twice won gold medals at the Hong Kong Food Festival Culinary Awards, has been the pastry chef at the Ritz-Carlton since the hotel opened in 1993. At his home in Chai Wan, he makes a luxurious version of a classic dessert

IN CASE you hadn't noticed, Tuesday is that time for ghosts, ghouls and goblins - Halloween. Children here probably won't get to experience the all-American fun of trick-or-treating up and down neighbourhood streets in the crisp autumn air - they will more likely be going up and down blocks of flats in air-conditioned lifts - but that doesn't mean they can't have fun.